Yes instead of doing city POPUP we are going to look into doing TRAIN POPUPS!

YES people would take train trips to different US MUSIC Halls of Fame & Museums and while visiting the city to see the hall and or museum the people in that city could come to the train to see our America’s Music Hall of Fame & Museum train cars!

I have a friend right here in Franklin that is a HUGE train FANATIC, Jim VanderWoude!

Yes in addition to promoting the MUSIC of America we are going to be adding the ART too in 2017!

Music and art go hand in hand.

When I think of the music from a particular MUSIC genre like African American GOSPEL, I also visualize what the scene must have looked like too. I grew up with a Mom who saw the value of both music and art. My room had a GE portable record player filled with LPs featuring all the genres of music world wide and a Dali’s Last Supper on the wall.

As an Inner Circle Adviser for the Robb Report I get ideas and today I read about highly successful company 21c that has successfully combined art museums with luxury hotels with the latest being in an Oklahoma City Ford assembly plant dating back to 1916.

My business partner and I have looked at these type of buildings through out the USA South but one of the main problems we have encountered is finding PARKING.

With the new popularity of POPUPS especially among the Millennials we are going to develop POPUP America’s Music Hall of Fame & Museums that will eventually cover the USA!

Yes Eddie not only was a legend as a discoverer of American music legends like Ricky Nelson, Fats Domino, Charley Daniels Jr, and dozens more but his appointment by President Reagan to the Tribunal as the Commissioner was another first for an African American.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Eddie and the Copyright Royalty Tribunal:

“October, 1981, Ray was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and confirmed by the US senate, to serve as a US Commissioner on the US Copyright Royalty Tribunal (CRT), for the unexpired term of a commissioner who resigned.Then on September, 1982, President Reagan nominated Ray for the second for a full term of seven years as a Commissioner on the CRT.

“The CRT’s primary responsibilities was (1) to set the Statutory Rates for certain sections of the Compulsory Licensing provisions of the US Copyright Act; and (2) to conduct Distribution Hearings to distribute Statutory Royalty funds that were deposited directly to the US Copyright Office by copyright users to be distributed to the appropriate copyright owners.

“During Ray’s tenure, the CRT conducted one Statutory Rate Hearing and raised the original rate set by Congress for Cable/Satellite companies that retransmitted broadcast signals into a distant market. The definition of “distant market” was thirty miles from the location where the broadcast signal originated. The CRT’s Cable/Satellite rate final Determination cause a tremendous controversy among Cable/Satellite companies and several members of Congress who believed the rate was much too high. The Cable/ Satellite companies appealed the CRT’s Determination to the Second Federal Circuit Court in Washington, DC and the Court upheld the CRT’s Determination in full.

“The CRT also conducted a Distribution Hearing each year during while Ray served as Commissioner at the CRT. During each of the Distribution Hearings, copyright owners were represented by copyright Claimants MPAA(for movies & TV Situation Comedies); Joints Sports (for NBA, Major League Baseball & NCAA ); Devotionals (TV Religious Programs); Music Performance Societies ( BMI, ASCAP, SESAC ); PBS; and NPR.”

My long time friend and author of This Magic Moment, Harry Turner, has come up with BRILLIANT idea: induct Eddie Ray in his own hometown of Franklin, North Carolina!

Yes, Eddie grew up in Franklin 90 years ago and attended the same little Episcopal church I do – Saint Cyprian’s where Eddie told me many of his relatives are buried.

This could put our little Franklin on the map as many of Eddie’s music discoveries like the legendary music mogul Mike Curb would be invited by our emcee Harry Turner to attend Eddie’s induction! Mike is also the former lieutenant governor of California.

Of course Charlie Daniels is a regular in Franklin and an inductee in the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, where Eddie is Executive Director.

Yes today I was studying the background of my friend Eddie Ray, a founder and Executive Director of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. I read his book of his incredible life as a music executive and it did not do justice to what I discovered on Wikipedia!

Here is a list of some the people Eddie either discovered or worked with:

Eddie wrote Hearts of Stone that has been recorded by such greats as The Charms, Elvis, Red Foley and John Fogarty. All in all it has been recorded by 32 different performers and named one of Broadcast Music Inc.’s Award Winning Songs!

For these accomplishments and many more we have decided to induct Eddie Wiley Ray into the America’s Music Hall of Fame this fall!